Non-Surgical Fat Removal from Stomach – What You Need to Know

Did you know that there is more than one type of tummy fat? One likes to live around your organs and the other sits just under your skin; but what can we do about it? How do we get rid of stomach fat? Well, today’s a good day because I’m going to give you a brief rundown on belly fat, what you can do about it at home and what non-surgical fat removal treatments can help you to shift it.

Let’s break down what the two main types of fat are. First up, we have visceral fat.

Visceral Fat Cells

This is not the type of excess fat you want to hold on to for too long. It can be dangerous. It lives deep inside of you and makes its home around your abdominal organs and, an excessive amount of visceral fat can lead to type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease. I’ve even seen visceral fat be called ‘life-threatening’. Not good news. However, as with all fat, we should have some in our bodies; a healthy amount of visceral fat helps to protect our organs (we want that) and to help stabilise our core temperature.

How Do We Know If We Have Too Much Visceral Fat?

A big tummy is a good indicator that you may have an excessive amount of fat around your organs. You can also use a set of scales that measures your body composition which will tell you; this can be done in a professional setting or there are these types of scales that come with phone apps you can buy to use at home.

How Can I Get Rid of My Visceral Fat?

This type of belly fat tends to be the first to go when you lose weight so improving your eating and exercising habits are key. When you start a weight-loss mission, your motivation can be really hard to sustain. It’s more realistic to make small changes to your lifestyle and maintain them. When it comes to exercise, something is better than nothing; this could be going up and down the stairs, a few times extra a day or doing push-ups with every trip to the bathroom-there are lots of ways to be inventive and add a little more movement to your day which you can gradually build upon.

When it comes to food, consider your portion sizes. We are all guilty of ‘eyes are bigger than my belly’ syndrome and can easily overload our plates. A simple trick is to use a smaller plate! It might sound silly, but it works; you aren’t left gazing longingly at a half-empty plate, which instantly makes you feel like you’re missing out.

Include foods in your diet that have a low Glycaemic Index (GI), such as lean proteins and whole grains, as these will leave you feeling fuller for longer, as will food that has a high concentration of water fresh fruit and veggies. Although they have the same calories, a fresh, juicy apple will keep your tummy fuller for longer than a dried apple that contains the same calories.

If you find that you struggle with your portion sizes and over-eating, you may like to learn more about The National Medical Weight Loss Programme that we offer at The Skin to Love Clinic (Hertfordshire) which helps you to lose weight from all over your body (not just your belly!) by curbing your hunger so that you can stop overindulging and start feeding your body for fuel and nutrients.

Next up, subcutaneous fat…

Subcutaneous Fat Cells

This is fat that sits under the skin rather than deep down around your organs. It’s found all over our bodies and we all have areas where we tend to ‘hold’ this type of fat more readily; thighs, bum, arms… for me, it’s my stomach and, as you’re reading this, I’m guessing that it’s probably the same for you.

Although visceral fat is deemed the ‘life-threatening fat’, excessive stubborn fat also has health implications; obesity, heart disease and diabetes are all risks.

How Can I Lose Subcutaneous Cells?

This type of fat can be a little tougher to shift and it tends to be lost after visceral fat; it’s there as an energy reserve for emergencies after all. This means that you need to keep up the good eating and exercise habits discussed above and eventually you’ll achieve an overall weight loss.

So, what about if you’re at a healthy weight and you still have a ‘trouble spot’ of fat that isn’t reducing as much as you would like? Then maybe treatment is for you. Here are 2 of our favourite non-surgical fat reduction treatments:

• Cristal aka the ‘fat freezing treatment’. You may have heard of CoolSculpt. Well, Cristal uses the same technology (medical cryolipolysis) as its predecessor, CoolSculpt. The reason we chose the Cristal device over CoolSculpt to have in our Clinic was that at the time, CoolSculpt only had one treatment ‘head’ whereas Cristal has two; this meant that we could treat more areas at one time, for example, both the upper abdomen and lower abdomen simultaneously making the Cristal treatment quicker and more affordable for our clients.

Cristal is ideal for treating bulky unwanted fat and works by freezing the fat in the area you wish to treat (in our case, belly fat). Fat freezing brings about the death of the treated body fat, which the body safely and permanently removes.

If you’d like to know more about Cristal fat removal, have a look at our Cristal FAQs here.

• Liposonix aka the fat buster. Another form of non-surgical fat removal, Liposonix uses HIFU technology (High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound… Don’t worry we’ll stick with ‘HIFU’) to destroy the body fat you wish to target. Much like after Cristal fat reduction, your body naturally, safely and permanently removes the treated body fat after a Liposonix treatment.

Liposonix is better suited to smaller amounts of fat and also has the added benefit of firming your skin in the treated area due to the warmth generated by the HIFU treatment energy. Note: this is a bonus, Liposonix is not primarily a skin-tightening treatment.

Can’t decide which treatment would be best for you? Not to worry, your consultant would assess you during a consultation and discuss what treatment would be best suited to your body and fat reduction goals. You can book a consultation here.

What is Fat Freezing?

The Cristal fat removal treatment is more frequently called ‘fat freezing’ and uses a non-surgical technique to freeze targeted body fat in your desired area. Some treatments that use this technology are better known as Coolsculpt and Cristal.

During the Cristal treatment, two treatment heads can be placed on the area of concern, for example, if you want fat removal for the stomach, a treatment head can be placed above and below the belly button or either side of the belly button. The fat is then gently vacuumed and cools the area down to such a degree that it causes the death of the desired pockets of fat, without damaging any surrounding tissue.

The technical term for the ‘fat freezing’ technology Cristal uses is ‘medical cryolipolysis’ and it causes the permanent removal of your body fat allowing you to remove bulky pockets of fat and sculpt your figure.

Your body removes the treated fat cells in the same way it would following fat removal with heat and the results usually follow between four and ten weeks after this hour-long treatment.

As you can see, fat removal with heat is like fat removal with cold in that both technologies bring about the death of your fat cells. However, at our fat-freezing Hertfordshire clinic, our preference is to treat smaller, stubborn pockets of fat with HIFU (heat) and larger, bulkier areas of fat with Medical Cryolipolysis (cold).

Book Here

What Is Your Most Popular Fat Reduction Treatment?

HIFU technology; an acronym for High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound, this technology has been used for decades by the medical community to ablate tumours within the body and has since been adapted for medical aesthetic treatments, allowing us to target unwanted fat cells and help get rid of stubborn pockets of fat.

Treatments such as Liposonix, use the HIFU technology to ablate the adipose tissue (fat cells) and cause molecular vibrations which cause an increase in heat to the targeted tissue, inducing the fat cells to die.

Following the Liposonix fat removal treatment, your body safely removes the body fat in the same way it would a fatty meal and most people can expect to see their treatment results four to twelve weeks after their treatment.

What is the Difference Between Surgical and Non-Surgical Liposuction Treatment?

Surgical Liposuction and, more recently Laser Liposuction are very popular surgical options to remove targeted pockets of fat. Both are effective methods of fat removal.

Traditional surgical liposuction uses a cannula (a thin tube) which is attached to a vacuum and sucks the targeted fat out of your body. During the body contouring treatment the surgeon uses a solution in the area which makes it easier for them to suction the fat, helps to reduce blood loss and, importantly, helps to make the area numb so you are comfortable during the procedure.

Laser Lipo, sometimes called SmartLipo, uses…yep you guessed it…a laser to help liquefy your fat in the chosen area. The fat is then sucked out in the same way as traditional liposuction.

The recovery from surgical fat removal is usually much longer and can be more difficult in comparison to non-surgical liposuction; a course of antibiotics is usually prescribed after the procedure and you may be required to wear a compression garment to control swelling in the area for a month or two afterwards. There are also risks from surgical liposuction that should be considered and should be discussed during a consultation at your chosen laser lipo clinic.

Non-surgical liposuction treatments like Liposonix, are non-invasive procedures that use high-intensity focused-ultrasound technology to remove belly fat. The treatment, which takes upwards of 20 minutes depending on the size of the area being dealt with, can cause mild to moderate discomfort and it’s recommended that patients wear loose comfortable clothing after their session. Again, Liposonix is designed as a one-off experience, but further treatments can be undertaken to enhance the outcome and results can usually be seen between 4-12 weeks.

Disclaimer: This blog is not to be used for diagnostic purposes. We are all unique which means that our results, recovery and suitability for any type of treatment will vary. Always seek the advice of a professional should you have any health or cosmetic concerns or to discuss treatments specifically for you.